Technical Theater Journals
by Hobbit4Lyfe
Summary: In a technical theater class first semester of my first year of college, we had to go see plays or musicals and write about what we noticed about the technical aspects of the shows, and what we thought of them. Please review.
1. Frankenstein

On October 23rd, I saw Frankenstein, presented by Prince William Little Theatre at the Hylton Performing Arts Center at the Prince William campus. The first thing I noticed was that the stage was similar to the TheaterSpace in the way that it was mostly just on a floor that was close to the audience. One thing that bothered me before the show even started was that the house lights constantly flickered while the audience was coming in to the theater and being seated. My mom and I confused because weren't sure if whoever was operating was doing it too early or if the lights weren't working well in a basically brand new theater.

The sets and the use of the stage worked well. The main stage floor was rather small, so a small balcony that wrapped around the back of the stage was used. I found this effective in scenes such as the introduction, when Victor Frankenstein was narrating on the main floor, because the Monster was lit for a few seconds while standing on the balcony. Some set props were hung from the balcony, such as a painting that was prominent in the parlor scenes. The sets and props worked well to make it look realistic to the time period and places. The costumes also added to this effect. One problem I had was that the stage area was small and there were no curtains to block off the sets when they were moved offstage during scene changes or when they were sitting offstage when not being used. A problem I had with the lights was the "lighting" used to bring the Monster to life was positioned right over top of the audience and it occasionally blinded me where the light fixtures were positioned across my field of vision.


	2. Death, So Delicious

On November 19th, I saw a murder mystery dinner theater show presented at the Johnson Center Bistro. I found this play interesting, since it seemed sort of non-traditional in several ways. In the Bistro, there's a small stage in one corner of the room, so there weren't really any sets. The only major set was the seating arrangement of the dinner tables that the audience sat at. The actors, for the most part, would mill about through the audience while speaking instead of using the stage. There weren't any lighting changes during the show. I thought that the costumes helped the actors play the chefs in the cooking competition because the costumes helped the actors play the chefs in an exaggerated stereotypical way. For example, the Tex-Mex chef dressed like a cowboy. The actors' accents also helped with this exaggeration, like the Tex-Mex chef using a southern accent, the Italian chef using an Italian accent, and the French chef using a French accent. I found it interesting that during the short intermissions between the four acts, the actors would interact with the audience members while everyone would eat or visit the buffet table. The interaction between the audience and the cast made the play feel a bit more intimate than in a traditional theater. I found it kind of funny that one of the suspects was a random audience member that was asked to have a small non-speaking role as a red herring.


	3. Charlotte's Web

On November 20th, I saw Charlotte's Web, presented by Pied Piper Theatre, a local children's group. I found the costumes were interesting and worked well. The humans wore traditional farm outfits, like long dresses for the girls and overalls for the boys. For Charlotte the Spider and her three daughters, the actresses wore all black and had spider puppets. The rest of the animals wore more stylizes costumes. They wore mostly human clothes, but the actors and actresses had to make the costume choices relate to the type of animal they were playing.

For the most part, there was only one set, since most of the play took place in the barn at the farm. I think the barn set was effective because there were two levels to it. The ground level was used for the humans and the animals, and the upper level was where Charlotte acted. On the second level, there was a projection screen for the words that Charlotte wrote in her web. The lighting seemed simple in some ways. I thought the most interesting part of the lights was the projector used for the words on the web. The main stage lights really only showed the changes from night to day. The song lyrics, more than the lights and costumes, gave clues to the passage of the seasons.


End file.
